What is it with Democrats and their legislative recruits? After much fanfare and PR fluff about Brian Carroll, the Democrats bribed him out of the race against Andy Kerr with an invented party position. Now they've chucked what was supposed to be a star recruit in Patrick Swonger from the race in HD59 due to the fact that he's only been a Democrat for a few weeks.
Only a few weeks ago, Democrat Party mouthpiece Colorado Pols was swooning for Swonger saying they've "heard good things about Swonger and he may well be the man for the job."
So what happened on the way to ballot qualification?
The Durango Herald reports:
The Colorado Democratic Party has disqualified Patrick Swonger from its primary in the 59th state House District.
From the day Swonger kicked off his run two weeks ago, people began contacting the party to complain he was ineligible given his insufficient tenure as a registered Democrat.
The Colorado Democratic Party declined to identify who reported Swonger.
Party rules stipulate that candidates must be registered for “a period of at least 12 months immediately preceding the date of the General Election.”
The next general election will take place Nov. 6. Swonger registered as a Democrat on Nov. 7, 2011.
Is the Democrat Party that hard up for candidates in Southwest Colorado that they are forced to recruit candidates that are even't registered Democrats?
The power brokers thought they had their star candidate, only to see their party activists rise up in revolt, narking on Swonger for being a Johnny-come-lately to their side of the divide.
The best part of the Herald write up is when Democrat Party Communications Director, Matt Inzeo, claims he was pleased that Swonger was booted from contention.
Really, Matt?
Is recruitment going that swimmingly that you are pleased to see top recruits get chucked?
If so, you might want to spend some more time rounding up candidates for CD6 who actually live there.
(Photo via Patrick Swonger's Facebook page)